NCMH, Palmetto Bone & Joint celebrate new facility

NEWBERRY — Newberry County Memorial Hospital and Palmetto Bone and Joint have collaborated with one another to expand upon the services already offered to the community by opening a joint facility located at 2704 Kinard Street. Members of the community gathered at the new location to host a ribbon cutting last week.

NCMH Chief Executive Office John Snow said the celebration was more than a grand opening, rather a chance to see the result of the planning, commitment, coordination, teamwork and skilled performance from a number of partners who helped make the facility come to fruition.

“In addition to this building, we are honored to highlight the exceptional care and service from the skilled healthcare teams that provide medical care, treatment and healing. For the medical staff and clinicians, thank you for the exceptional care you provide to this community,” Snow said.

Candace Frick, chair of the NCMH Board of Trustees welcomed those in attendance to the new home of the hospital’s Center for Adult Physical, Speech and Occupational Therapy Services. Frick said many who took part in the ribbon cutting have seen the hospital’s continued growth first-hand.

“Our adult rehabilitation is one of the services that has seen definite growth. Newberry Hospital provides both inpatient and outpatient care and offers all the modalities including physical, occupational and speech therapy. We continue to attract high quality and caring staff who have the desire to seek additional training and skills to provide the best possible care to our patients,” she said. “This facility will provide the space, technology and skills to allow the hospital to continue to provide exceptional care. In 2025, Newberry Hospital will celebrate 100 years of providing care to Newberry County residents and beyond. Our desire is to continue to diversify and innovate while maintaining the personal care we have come to be known for.”

For Dr. Phil Milner with Palmetto Bone and Joint, the grand opening of the facility was the culmination of about six years of planning and re-planning. As the need for services continues to increase, Milner said the new facility was a godsend. Palmetto Bone and Joint is starting its 31st year in Newberry and Milner said they couldn’t have imagined growing out of their former office.

“We kept things together as long as we could and that started started the collaboration of us working with Bruce Baldwin (former NCMH CEO). We initially looked at a new construction and after months or perhaps even a year or two of planning, we realized that there might be a better option. A board member brought up this facility, which was essentially a shell of a building,” Milner said. “When you walk through it, I think you’ll be impressed by what it went from to what it is today. It’s a beautiful office, excellent planning, good architects, excellent builders, but also the willingness of the board and board members to participate and helping us continue to grow. I suspect in 15 years somebody else will be standing here saying ‘I can’t believe we just grew out of this office and we need a bigger office.” We could not have fathomed that 30 years ago we could possibly need a facility like this in a town the size of Newberry. We’re honored to be a part of this facility. This is a collaboration for us with physical therapy to try to increase the proficiency, efficiency and patient satisfaction.”

Following the ribbon cutting, guests were able to tour the facility and enjoy refreshments.